Shoot It Into My Veins: What’s Fueling the Vitamin IV Craze

Forget the vitamin gummy. Mobile IV therapy has moved well beyond hangovers, and a booming longevity industry is fueling its next chapter.

BY MELISSA ANGELL, SENIOR STAFF WRITER @MELISSKAWRITES

A nurse is in my living room filling a 1,000 mL bag with saline, vitamin C, vitamin B-complex, zinc, magnesium, and calcium gluconate, Drip Hydration’s basic immunity boost. With flu season in full swing, it seemed like a reasonable way to get extra protection beyond my regular vaccines. But as the chartreuse liquid flows into my bloodstream, I start to taste something I can only describe as … Cheerios. My heart races. What have I gotten myself into?

Drip Hydration is one of a growing number of mobile IV clinics that come to you — at home, at the office, at a hotel — offering hydration drips alongside wellness options like muscle recovery, headache relief, and energy boosts. CEO Abe Malkin founded the Los Angeles-based company in 2017 after working as a concierge doctor making house calls. Many of his patients were interested in biohacking — using science and self-experimentation to optimize health — and were increasingly requesting vitamin-boosted IV drips.

IV therapy itself is nothing new. Doctors used saline IVs to treat severe dehydration in cholera patients as far back as the 1830s. By the 1950s, softer plastic and Teflon catheters replaced stiff metal ones, making the procedure safer and more practical. IVs are still widely used to deliver treatments like iron infusions and chemotherapy because they bypass........

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